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A large wildfire burning on the tundra continued to move toward a Southwest Alaska village Sunday, though fire managers said its pace had slowed.
The East Fork fire, which was started by lightning May 31, covered another mile and was about 4 miles from the community of St. Mary’s, according to a Sunday update from the Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service. The fire moved closer to the village by a mile since Saturday.
The fire had grown to almost 122,000 acres.
Tundra is a treeless area covered with low-lying plants, and the fire was being fed by extremely dry grass and brush filled with alders and willow.
There were 204 personnel working the fire, with more crews expected to arrive Monday.
There are no mandatory evacuation orders, but about 700 residents of St. Mary’s and the nearby community of Pitkas Point were told to prepare in case they needed to leave.
There have been voluntary evacuations by residents, as well as others living in the nearby communities of Mountain Village and Pilot Station.
About 80 people had chosen to leave by Saturday, according to Emery Johnson, lead public information officer for the Alaska Incident Management Team that took over firefighting operations on Saturday.
On Sunday, 145 residents were sheltered temporarily in Bethel, according to BLM.
Residents flew out on commercial airlines and also left by boat, Johnson said. “Most are going to different villages where they have family members,” she said.
Early Saturday morning, firefighters completed a defensive burnout on the west side of the East Fork of the Andreafsky River to protect equipment and structures near a fish weir — a fence placed in flowing water to direct the movement of fish.
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On Sunday, firefighters were working on a containment line that protects Mountain Village, Pitka’s Point and Saint Mary’s, along the connecting road between the two villages, according to the Sunday update.
“The intent for those lines is that if the fire continues to progress towards St. Mary’s, then we would be able to burn off that line and blunt the progression of the fire toward the villages,” Incident Commander Peter Butteri said in a video update.
St. Mary’s sits on the bank of the river. Firefighters were also working to protect structures on the east side of the weir, as well as fortifying a fire line a half mile outside St. Mary’s. Aircraft have also been dropping retardant along that line.
Boats have been used to shuttle firefighters to protect structures upriver of St. Mary’s. Crews also have also been working to protect Alaska Native properties.
The area’s remoteness complicates any potential evacuations.
Fire managers are in discussions with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Alaska Department of Public Safety, the agencies that would make any evacuation decisions in concert with village officials, Johnson said.
The different entities are talking about “if we need to do a mass evacuation, how would we do that?” she said.
Generally, fire officials could start telling residents to have bags packed for possible evacuation if the fire came within a mile of the village, Johnson said. Crews would also start preparing a burn to protect buildings by eliminating fuel for the fire.
Managers wouldn’t order an evacuation until the fire got closer than a mile away and crews lit that burn, she said.
Hot, dry conditions continued through Sunday, but temperatures were forecasted to cool slightly and humidity was expected to rise. A low pressure system moving in from the west could bring favorable conditions and a chance of showers by Monday or Tuesday. It could also bring a wind switch that would help push the fire away from the villages, officials said in the statement.
St. Mary’s and Pitkas Point, which is situated to the south at the confluence of the Andreafsky and Yukon rivers, are located about 450 miles west of Anchorage.
With about 45 active fires in Southwest Alaska, smoke was moving into South Central and Interior Alaska Sunday morning, according to the Division of Forestry.
The overall weather in Alaska this weekend has been cooling in the west and warming to the east. With wind directions changing, fire concerns could shift to easter Alaska next week.
This story was reported by Mark Thiessen of the Associated Press and ADN reporters Zaz Hollander and Alena Naiden.
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Tundra fire is still moving closer to Southwest Alaska villages, though at a slower pace - Anchorage Daily News
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